Monday, March 20, 2006

Hey, look who's been drawing..

So I finally made myself sit down with my yellow Preston Blair book and draw from it for days. That's pretty much all I did yesterday and today when I had free time. At first I approached it wrong, and it was a pain in the ass. My initial approach was to look at the same characters Preston draws, but then draw them in new positions. Sure, that's a good idea, a ways down the line. But right now I've decided to just copy every freakin drawing in there, and construct them as he says, along the way. That's made it seem a lot easier, and a lot more fun.

Oh, and for all you guys out there that are reading how Johnny K says, "Get the yellow book, not the green one", don't sweat it. He's right, but if you can't find the yellow one, then buy the green one and just study certain pages. Everything from the yellow book is in the green book--there's just way more stuff that you don't need that you can happily ignore. I have both books. One day, when I really decide I love you guys :) I'll just go through the yellow book and write down where the mirror image pages are in the green book. Cuz I don't think they do sell the yellow one anymore, Johnny. I got it on eBay. Book stores figure the other one's newer, and it makes them more money :) cuz it's friggin huge in comparison.

Anyway, here's an idea I came up with to kick myself in the ass, and get myself into it all. Feel free to steal this idea: you know in the beginning of the book when Preston shows you how to let a face on an egg be your guide? Well, I went to Michael's Arts and Craps and bought two wooden eggs and drew the little faces on. Drawing the faces in different positions, trying to achieve perfect perspective actually proves to be a little bit harder than one would think. I was thinking, "Aw this is easy. I can skip this." And, it wasn't horribly difficult, but it was definitely worth doing. Depending on what size egg you get, the prices change a little. But I chose the 79 cent eggs! That's A-okay with me. And, huzzah, I can have my little models forever without them rotting on me.

So, I filled pages upon pages with cutesy animals and weird dogs and stuff. I guess there's no point of showing that progress, cuz I'm just copying his drawings. Buuut, eventually, as incentive, I eventually allow myself to draw fun stuff at the end, just to see if anything is looking different. And this transformation of knowing what the hell I'm doing, and taking an informed way of approaching a drawing is really switching things up. Fun stuff. I'm excited. I made this drawing of me the other day--no big deal:But tonight I drew one girl that was inspired by the fun, tacky stuff that the girlfriends and wives wear on The Sopranos:And then I did a different girl, (skank!):

27 Comments:

DAAAMN IVY! great drawings!!!! the blue and black girl with the 'tacky sopranos' getup is AMAZING. it has a real 'old school' feeling that i've been trying to grasp in my own doodles... whats your secret?? (oh, and i'll have some more up on my blog today...thanks for the encouragement!)

What a freaken great idea! I would of never thought of getting those wooden egges from a craft store. I love the drawings. I myself got the yellow book from my retoucher dad. Thanks for posting the egg idea.

Hey Ivy great post. The drawing of the Sopranos get-up chick is awesome. She reminds me of some Dan DeCarlo girls! Fantagraphics published a great book collecting his girlie cartoons. Hope everything goes ok with your DUI. I know people who got pulled over for worse and nothing happened so maybe theres still hope!

Thanks for the link I plan on having a tone of egg drawings done soon. It's funny played with that book off and on since the late ninety's if I was a smart man I would of spent the time make a light box form the instruction on the back page and just draw. Ah well hine sight is 20/20 ;)

lol tavis is really a fairy tail name, i'm a elf who lives by the sea. chances are i ain't on that vid... i didn't go to many parties...i'm sorry jose hates you. you don't seem hateable...thats my opinion.

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